Altigen follows Gold trail to MS VARs
Telephony vendor hopes to tie up with software giant's resellers
IP telephony vendor Altigen is aiming to gain access to Microsoft resellers after gaining Gold ISV partner status from the software giant and bolstering its distribution tier.
The vendor is hoping to develop relationships between its IP telephony resellers and Microsoft CRM resellers.
The firm is represented in the UK by an agency, Products to Europe, managed by Peter Cameron. He said Altigen's IP PBX product is already integrated with Microsoft Outlook.
"We worked hard last year with Microsoft to provide integration with CRM," Cameron said. "We are targeting the SME sector where call-centre capabilities are in demand."
Altigen provides reseller support through its distributors, VoIPStore and Now Distribution.
Graham Jacklin, managing director of VoIPStore, said the distributor is looking to work with both voice and data resellers on the Altigen range.
"There is demand for call-centre and contact-centre products from the SME sector. The Altigen product offers hardware that does not require bolt-on products, such as routers, so it is more attractive on price," he said.
The company signed Now Distribution as exclusive UK distributor last year but added VoIPStore in January. It has about 10 accredited resellers and hopes to sign a total of 20 in the UK.
Cameron admitted Altigen needed a distributor with more convergence skills to attract the right resellers.
"Now Distribution was the first distributor to come on board, but it is more of a data networking player. It was hard to convince its resellers to move into telephony," he said.
"VoIPStore is our main focus, but resellers can still buy through Now Distribution."
The company will push all new resellers through VoIPStore.
Brian Jackson, managing director of Now Distribution, agreed with the vendor's move.
"We are data-focused and concentrate on this, but I believe the voice over IP market will be more concerned with data than voice."